Tauranga

Tauranga

At Tauranga the family and I thought we should definitely go to the mount for a spa and a walk of course. On the way up the mount it was really windy and raining, but it was all worth it when we got to see the view on the top of the Mount. The next day dad really wanted to go for a surf so we went to the mount once again and had a great surf but before I got into the water it I saw this massive crab burrowing into the sand and I was skeptical the whole time I was surfing after that. For the rest of the week I met alot of my friends and had a great time.

My Birthday

 My Birthday

 The day before my birthday we stayed at a really nice place near the beach my Mum and Dad were going for a swim while I was looking through the sand dunes and I came across a little Lizard/Gecko I thought it was really interesting so I called mum over shouting as loud as I could and she got alot of awesome photos of it.

 The next day was my birthday I was a teen! We drove straight to where our fellow Extravagangsters were to catch up and celebrate. I found my friends snorkeling around the rocks so I walked through knee high water to see them. When they looked my way to see where the shouting was coming from they lended me a snorkel and I had a ball seeing quite decent sized fish there were alot more than I expected. Later on after our refreshing snorkel we walked over to this massive mountain called Mount Manaia it was a 2 hour walk up to the top and back it was great, at the start we had a heap of refreshing rain that turned into great sunshine towards the top. At the top we had a beautiful view of everything! When we got to the bottom I was sweating like a pig it was a really good walk I did it in a hour 30 instead of two hours I was pretty proud to conquer that mountain in the end. Around 7ish Dusty asked if I wanted to go out for a fish with his kids on the kayak so of course I said yes!!!! It was great fun I caught about 9 snapper but only 3 were right sized we lost one decent sized snapper because Dusty was taking this small fish off the hook while the big one was still in his lap because I caught a small snapper basically straight after the big one and what he did was accidentally gave the big snapper to his kid to throw back in the water instead of the little one so we lost a snapper. The next day me and Dylan went looking in this little stream and we came across some really weird fish and crabs we brought them all over to a pond we made and let them go when we finished.  Overall I had a great birthday thanks to my family and friends love you all.

New Plymouth & Mokau

 New Plymouth & Mokau

On setup day in New Plymouth we had a lovely catch up with everyone talking about what happened throughout our week. Going back into my week we drove to my grannies house and she gave me a awesome present Buncho Balloons when I first saw it I thought wow! I'm going to have great fun with the kids using this. Back to setup day I was busy trying to setup a balloon fight I got Aidan right on the back with a balloon plus my mum right on the leg it was really exhilarating and fun!

When we were all set up and it was dark we headed off to the light show. The light show was really packed with people because of the Cat Stevens concert right next to the light show it was also the light show opening. It was still pretty spectacular my favourite  part of the light show was the florescent lights that made any fluoro colours glow I was shining like a star it was pretty cool we had a great time gazing at the lights overall we had an awesome time.

The next day I got lit on fire for my first time! It was really cool the noises when you are spinning sound like a helicopter about to take off! It was pretty scary but it gives you a level of respect for the fire. On the same night we decided to go to the rowboats at the light show we bumped into so many people and banks it was actually starting to get a bit daunting.

On Tuesday we made our way to Mokau. Me and another family from the fair went kayaking over to this cave that was only like 8 meters long. We also kayaked to this pretty cool rock that people use to do bombs off. When we boarded the beach again we were picking up the sand because it looked pretty cool being black and I got a hook into my finger!!! Out of all the bunches of sand I could've picked up I got the one with a hook in it! My finger was aching but it was ok. Later on in the day we went hunting for some goat my dad was lining up to shoot but just before he shot he got to close to the scope and BANG! the gun recoiled into his eye and it was bleeding everywhere giving him a big cut. We did kill the goat though so success. Maybe by the time that you read this I will be eating some goat. Anyway that's most of what I did through the weekend.

Greymouth to Nelson

Greymouth to Nelson

On our way through to Nelson we stopped at some cool places, One of them was Pancake Rocks.

Pancake Rocks was a really cool little stop the rocks were layered on top of each other in hundreds and thousands. It made a very weird and different kind of look I liked it! When I looked down at the  rocky punishing waves I was very respectful to the place and it's waters. The next day we drove on a pretty dodgy road to a beach called Tauranga bay. The place was awesome Mum and I were intrigued by the sea life and dad was intrigued by the surf. There were so many seals on the rocks it was awesome! In Gisborne we don't see to many seals at all. The next place we stopped at was called  Bula Swing Bridge. This place was really scenic you could see roughly 3 to 4 meters deep it was really clean. The Swing bridge that was there is the biggest in New Zealand it is very high and freaky. After that I really got my nerves going because mum booked us in for JET BOATING!!

I was shaking and many doubts were going through my mind but mum and dad forced me on to the boat. The driver was very funny, nice and to be honest I thought he was a little crazy. But the Ride was EXHILARATING it was filled with education, 360's, drifts, rapids and a bit of screaming. One of the things I remember is that he got a bucket dipped it into the water and then drank it! It was so clean that you could drink it. I had a little sip it was surprisingly very nice. We also went 80kmph over 3 inch deep water! It was like skimming a rock across a lake we were so fast! The driver was crazy enough to let me drive for a bit as well, the boat was actually very  responsive. So yeah that was the highlight of my week.

Wanaka To Greymouth

Wanaka To Greymouth

The trip to Greymouth started off great the Ashton family invited me and some other kids along to clip n climb. It was great I took on some fears and had a excellent time doing it. I tried getting a record at the place but the fastest time I got is 25 seconds going up a 7 meters high wall .  The record scoreboard said that a man did it in 3.3 SECONDS he would have had to basically run up the wall!

 After that we made our way through the haast pass and looked at some beautiful places. My favourite stop was the blue pools . The bridges were really wobbly and fun and the water was crystal clear it was amazing. We found our way across to a place called Bruce Bay the next day oh to play oh yay. It was the first beach that we have been to for a long time so we were happy to be there.
When we first got out of the bus we were greeted with a pile of rocks but when we looked closely they all had little messages on them and names.
So we thought we had to add our own so we gave the pile a nudge family.

A little while later the whole crew of gypsies came with a gypsy girl called Koko. Koco and I went to build a dam on the beach it worked out great. When we finally got to Greymouth we were at a pretty cool beach with actually good surf! We saw alot more of the crew there. At the end of the night we had a bon fire but as the tide came in we had to protect it so we got like 5 shovels an went hard at work. Eventually the rain came and ruined the bon fire. The next day we went to Shanty Town with Dani. Shanty Town was awesome we saw and gobbled up the history of Shanty Town. All the old houses and items in there were pretty cool you could easily imagine what it would have been like in the olden days. We met up with the Ashtons coincidentally as soon as the train was about to take us to gold panning. The gold panning was and experience and a half it would be very hard in the old days trying to find and see your gold.

After that we went around all the houses again till we found this dress up shop. 

We all decided to dress up in old clothes, to get a photo together. 

Lake Hayes Arrowtown

My weekend after Queenstown really wasn't that interesting. But i'll give you the gist of it. We went from Queenstown to a place called Lake Hayes and we stayed there for a while. Feeding all the ducks and checking out our surroundings. After that we drove our bus to this place called Arrowtown. We walked around the town and came to this Chinese farm place with lots of history. There were lots of old characteristic houses that were embedded into rocks which was pretty cool I liked imagining what it would have been like back then. We also came to this really awesome looking lolly shop it was a bit expensive but I still bought some things. We also stopped at this place called Cromwell the history of Cromwell was interesting did you know the town used to be UNDERWATER. They saved the houses from under the water! That was pretty much my week from Queenstown to Wanaka

Wakatipu & Queenstown

                                                                Wakatipu

After we finished driving to the end of the whole of New Zealand we ended up in this beautiful, amazing, magnificent, outstanding stunning lake. There are many words for this lake because it was just truly amazing. This was my best stop yet! Every morning when I woke up I would see the clear glistening water and the giant mountains with speckles of snow covering them. We had lots to do there such as kayaking, building fires, partying and for me hanging out with friends. Us kids enjoyed kayaking the most. We named this rock that we board onto with our kayaks "The Log" and another one called

 "The Rock". Riley Danielle and I had a picnic on "The Rock" It was nice but the water was very  cold when we jumped in. You could see the coral so easy when you jumped in, it was kinda 

scary.

Queenstown

When we made it to Queenstown we parked up in a pretty nice motor camp. Then we made our way into town we looked at all the things you could do. We were intrigued by the jet boating but in the end we didn't. But we did go under the wharf and looked at all the fish. There were many more than I thought there would be. It was actually really cool! I imagined swimming right in front of the observatory I would be on top of so much fish and eels ewwww. The best part of that was seeing the ducks diving for food they were like real fish. After having a look few some shops we went up the gondola. It was very freaky because my mum stood up every 5 seconds trying to get the perfect picture and she was shaking the whole GONDOLA! It was a very nice view but still the gondola made my ears pop and kept my head spinning. We bought some bean boozled  jelly beans for me and the kids in the weekend. Then had dinner at a place called The Cow. It was a very old English like pizza restaurant. The weekend wasn't very nice it was raining all the time. Everyone didn't get much money wise that weekend. Everyone was a bit down and in the dumps. But we made the best out of the rain and started sliding around in our shoes and throwing rugby balls around.